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This is the first in a series of articles that looks at how a relatively simple
Java servlet application can provide a useful multi-channel service, accessible
to both mobile wireless and desktop clients. The application we'll develop
is a real estate service providing access to homes and other properties. Real
estate agents can use this service while they're on the road, at home,
showing properties to their clients, or in the office. Our example uses WAP's
Wireless Markup Language (WML) for the wireless web channel, although we could
easily substitute another XML-compliant markup language such as XHTML.

These articles show you a process that can help you build a flexible wireless
web application. They also explain how to use XML and XSLT to define a template-driven
user interface, and explore some of the common problems in wireless application
development.

Opportunity Assessment

The process begins with an opportunity assessment so we can determine whether
our application makes sense in a mobile world. We check for the following
characteristics:

User workflow can be broken into a series of simple steps.

Minimal
text entry is required.

The application takes advantage of time, location, and/or
personalization.

The application has a sustainable business model (someone will pay for
the application).

The application satisfies a genuine user need—what Paul May, in
his book Mobile Commerce: Opportunities, Applications, and Technologies of
Wireless Business (Cambridge University Press, 2001), refers to as a
user's mission.

The Real Estate Assistant application is appropriate for the mobile world
because it satisfies these requirements, as shown below:

User workflow can be broken into a series of simple
steps. The workflow is a simple sequence of query, summary, and
details.

The application takes advantage of time, location, and/or
personalization.
The application takes advantage of location (information is
available to agents when they're on the move or showing properties) and
time (new properties are immediately available).

The application has a sustainable business model (someone will pay
for it). Real estate offices will pay for the service by
subscription.

The application satisfies a genuine user need. The application is genuinely useful because it lets agents
access up-to-date property information from any location and at any time. It
enables them to accomplish their mission of locating and selling appropriate
properties to their clients.